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QMI Agency

Nov 4, 2014

, Last Updated: 10:57 AM ET

ST. CATHARINES, Ont. -- Brock University has come under fire after white students dressed in blackface won a Halloween costume contest on campus.

The school's labour studies faculty and students issued an open letter Monday saying an incident at Isaac's Bar and Grill on Oct. 30, where students were dressed as the Jamaican Bobsled Team, has "generated concern and anxiety" on campus.

The letter, posted on the faculty's Twitter and Facebook sites, said blackface can never be disassociated from the vicious legacy of white supremacy and institutionalized anti-black racism.

"We fear that without a strong rebuke from senior administration and a clear anti-racism plan of action moving forward, what happened at Isaac's will be validated and a message will be sent to the Brock community that racism is an accepted reality of campus life," read the letter signed by Centre for Labour Studies director Larry Savage and others.

Brock University Students' Union issued its own statement Monday, saying it wants to assure students that the union is taking steps to ensure a similar incident does not occur again.

The students union said on its website that it will ensure current workplace safety and harassment training is present to front-line staff and will revisit how similar contests take place.

"Currently most of these types of contests, such as the costume contest, are based on a crowd applause selection process and are of a very arbitrary nature," the statement said, adding in the future, entrants will be vetted with a supervisor before being presented to the crowd.

It said it also intends to run awareness campaigns and provide resources leading up to events that could lend themselves to similar incidents.